Dawn- An age of Darkness
Chapter 243 - To Fall Or Not To Fall, That Is The Question

It was a two-story jump. But that would have been the case if I'd jumped straight to the middle but sadly I'd jumped right in the middle of the hobgoblins: it was more like I fell there but oh well. Yay, more fun for me. I wasn't excited for this in the least though. 

But as the hobs attacked, one thing became obvious: my speed. I was at least twice or perhaps even three times faster now. And with the extra arm, I could use my knife. So killing the slowly moving hobs wasn't a problem. But I couldn't waste my time with these while the little girl was still being pinned to the ground. 

But strangely I felt accustomed to this speed. I didn't know why but something didn't feel right about this power. Something felt… off. 

I run for the center stage while clearing up a path. My descent was fast and swift. The hobs and the mages were too shaken up to know what was happening. So cutting them and clearing a path was a lot easy. At last easier than I thought. 

But the three goblin abnormals down there noticed me and they were glaring at me from a while ago. It made me feel a bit nervous but I'd decided to do this anyway. 

The least I could do, was wake up Dick and hope to fight these guys to a standstill before that. And perhaps I had a shot at this with the mystic blade. 

It was strange how all the goblins got quiet the moment I entered the stage and no one tried to attack me. Were they really going to watch the show play out or something?

But before I could pull up the mystic blade, one of the three disappeared. I kept my senses sharp but if I had to guess- I swung my sword in an arc exactly behind me. 

Something connected and a metallic clang resounded. The goblin was behind me and if I'd hesitated for another second, I'd have been stabbed. It didn't have a knife, just a sharp rock. I staggered back a step. This thing was a lot stronger than I thought.

None of the three had any special weapons or clothes. They did have more cloth around their waists than typical goblins but that was it. The female abnormal however had a bit of cloth covering her chest, it wasn't fully covered though. 

Even with this speed, these things were faster than me and equal to me in strength if not stronger. "Dick! You frigging limp moron, get up!"  He was sound asleep. I clicked my tongue, this did not look great. "DiCK!

"Would it be alright, if I take him? He seems to be quite the special dish." The voice came from the female goblin: she licked her lips. It was human, as in too human. The words were in goblin tongue but instead of gibberish, they conveyed meaning to my mind. 

All three were sentient, there was no doubt about it. 

The other two goblins moved closer to the other victims while the female goblin headed my way. The small girl was still pinned down and was missing half of her clothes. 

And the rest of the victims were still unconscious. 

So far, even with all this, I'd done nothing. Nothing had changed. 

"I assume you can understand me? Why are you doing this and would you be willing to let them go?"

If I'd taken out the mystic blade, bad things were about to happen. So I had to make sure I didn't have any regrets before using it. If a god came to this city because of the sword all havoc was about to be wrecked, so I had to store it up for my last resort. 

"Oh? You understand the goblin tongue?" The goblin showed me its teeth. Its teeth were almost like that siren's, definitely not beautiful. And I was definitely not into purple skinny human-like things anyway. "Of course not."

I guess negotiations were never an option. 

"Then you leave me no choice." I chucked in my knife and immediately pulled out the mystic blade: I didn't have time to hesitate. The whole place shook as I held the sword. 

Strangely, the blue aura was reacting to the sword. I guess even the mana of gods hated each other. But it had nothing to do with me. I channeled my mana into the sword and glared right at the goblin abnormals. 

They were confused and two of them were even a bit scared. 

"Why do you this human? You could have run away and brought back reinforcements." The female abnormal glared, ready to attack any moment. And I could tell, these guys were fairly fast and powerful. 

There was no room for mistakes. I had to do this fast.

"And let you harm them? No thanks." I readied myself and jumped straight for the throat of the goblin without a warning. I was always faster with this sword, this time was no exception and my body felt strengthened too. 

And yet, I couldn't bring out my strength. It was almost as though something invisible was holding me back. 

The female goblin couldn't keep up and tried scratching me. I dodged. It didn't even have any weapons, and yet, it was stronger than armed demons. I did not want to go near those claws. 

But I had something else on my mind, for attacking like this. 

Instead of keeping up the attacks, I switched gears and ran straight for the pinned girl, took the abnormal by surprise, and sliced its throat, but it jumped at the very last moment. Pink glowing droplets fell on the ground; these things were still alive. 

"You okay?"

The girl had lost her voice and she just nodded, barely maintaining the ripped of clothes to hide her privates. She was in tears but she had hope in those eyes. 

This was bad. After trying to attack these things for so long, I could definitely feel why the geezer had trouble with these things. Even with the mystic blade, it was going to be very difficult. 

It really was weird that no normal goblins were trying to attack me, even now. I had better things to worry about though. 

"Very well human, I wanted to savor you and make my slave but-" The female goblin grinned and raised a hand. "Destroy them"

Arrows, rocks, and darts, all came for me: I guess I asked for this. But the girl was right behind me, meaning if I dodged, it was all over for her. 'Damn it!' I used both swords and sliced as best I could. But even so- I was pierced in thirty-one spots, hit with rocks in twenty-seven and was barely left standing: if it weren't for the blue and white aura, I'd have been crippled already. At least the girl was unharmed. 

"Argh!" It hurt like hell, even more than when I'd lost my arm. The arrows were still in me and it really felt like I'd die for sure this time. 

I was about to fall. I couldn't keep my head up anymore. Everything spun. 

"You-" The girl softly spoke and cried silently. I guess she just gave up right now. 

"Bravo-" The three goblins clapped. "Eating you might be a grand feast after all."

I guess the word grand was all over this world. 

My breaths were going out of control. 'Sorry guys.' I really shouldn't have come alone. I guess I was still powerless alone. But if I gave up here, was there really hope left for me?

And yet, I was going to defeat the emperor? It seemed almost comical right now. 

The girl pulled on the edge of my pants. She had tears in her eyes, but those eyes, she hadn't yet given up. All the hair of my body stood up and a jolt went through my nervous system. 'I can't give up!' I had a promise to keep and I had a goal to reach. I used the swords as support. 'I'm not going to fall!'

I tried focusing my mana in my hand for a spell. 

But then I remembered. 'Wait, magic.'

My magic was special. It had healing properties but I could never use it to heal, rather all I could do was attack. 

All this time, I was just being stupid and attacking without thinking. Maybe the abnormals threw me off but even so, there were other reasons too. My body was faster, and yet, my speed didn't improve. It was almost as though I was being held back. 

But what could it have been… what- I couldn't feel my lips. And that's when I remembered. 

'The poison.'

I was forgetting an awful lot of stuff lately. 

"You guys really planned everything, huh?" I tried to initiate a conversation. 

I knew how all the bad guys liked to ramble about their ingenious plans and how they were superior to us and I was willing to bet on that.